Posted June 25, 2023 by Dirk the Red Panda
Over the past year or so, I have been struggling with this story's direction. When I originally conceived of this idea, I had no clue where I wanted to go with it. All I knew is that I had these characters and a west-coast setting I wanted to share with the world! From there, I developed the plot one day at a time, pretty much flying by the seat of my pants. I came up with various elements spontaneously: Marcus' interest in graphic design, Kenny and the Worldvision club, etc. While it worked in the short term, over time it became apparent that I couldn't keep doing this. The story elements began to clash; it was burning me out creatively. I struggled more while writing less. It got to a point where I debated canning the story altogether. I needed a definitive direction.
I reached out to Cetus (writer of I.C.O. and Before You Depart) for help. Together, we found that two main aspects of the story clashed with each other, and one needed to be cut. Behind the scenes, I developed supernatural lore for our characters. Marcus was going to be a werewolf, Selma a vampire, Kenny a triton, and Vic would have been a human/hyena shapeshifter called a "kishi" (inspired by African mythology). Each supernatural species had a theme for their corresponding character, and it would impact many of their interactions going forward. I even added a few details in update 6.5 to include foreshadowing. However, it clashed with Ocean Avenue's slice-of-life genre. Up to this point, the story focused mainly on Evan navigating his new college life and pondering where he fit in. We followed Evan's social life in San Vicente through his love of volleyball. The "everyday, mundane" college life didn't mesh with the plight of supernatural identities. At times, it seemed like I was writing two separate stories. As a result, neither aspect was fleshed-out.
I've come to the decision to cut out the supernatural parts. Update 7 was going to be a big reveal of everyone's supernatural identities. Because of this and some other story revisions, the release of Update 7 will be delayed. We don't have a definitive duration for this delay, so stay tuned for more info.
However, there are some positives that came from this deliberation: Going forward, Cetus will be a co-writer for Ocean Avenue! Cetus is a talented writer and story composer, and I am honored to have him on our team. During our talk, we found our shared experiences with autism to be quite applicable to Evan's feelings of social inadequacy. We won't spoil too much yet about how it will be integrated, but rest assured, the essence of what Ocean Avenue is will still be maintained.
I know this is a lot to drop on you all so suddenly. This choice has not only given me better story guidance, but also a rejuvenated passion for writing Ocean Avenue. If you made it this far, thank you for your time, and I look forward to the next update!